A week after the Newtown massacre, The Journal News published an interactive Google Map with the names and addresses of gun permit owners in select New York cities. The bold move has escalated into a transparency arms race, after a Connecticut lawyer posted the phone number and addresses of the Journal‘s staff, including a Google Maps satellite Image of the Publisher’s home. “I don’t know whether the Journal’s publisher Janet Hasson is a permit holder herself, but here’s how to find her to ask,” read Christopher Fountain’s blog post. The double irony here is that open data was heralded as a tool of enlightened civic dialog, and has been co-opted for fierce partisanship, bordering on public endangerment.

2. I don't understand why these gun people are so upset.

I thought their gun were going to protect them. Aren't those of us without guns the ones who have to worry about being robbed? How does their skewed logic work for guns in schools? Does it make schools safer or just an easy place to steal guns and kill everyone? They really are the oddest group. I heard one actually say that the founding fathers didn't envision the press being able to have this information so that printing it should be against the law. Talk about instant karma!

10. You really don't get it?

How about my sister who had to move to get away from a stalker who threatened to kill her several times. She bought a gun to protect herself. Now some asswipe wants to publish her name and address?

The publisher may have something to fear if innocent people are victimized because of their stupidity.

Further, the nonsense about it being public information neglects the fact that a freedom of information request must be made to get the information which leaves a distinct paper trail if someone does use public information to victimize someone else. No, this will lead to a closing of gun owners records as a privacy issue.

14. How about if someone's child goes to play at your sister's house

Your sister decides to keep her gun ownership a secret and that visiting child is shot and killed by her unsecured gun . Didn't that child's parents have the right to know there was a gun in the house? Just because some asswipe wants to own a gun doesn't mean that the rest of us have to be subjected to it.

41. Good-looking women go through life in much the same way.

Everyone is suspect until you have evidence to the contrary. It's a good idea to ALWAYS have doubts about someone's intentions until you know them better. Some of my acquaintances -or yours- might be wife beaters for all we know.

53. Wow. That's really sad.

50. I'm not going to tell the whole story again but some asswipe with a gun....

was the cause of someone's child I knew being shot and killed. Sorry some woman had to buy a gun to feel protected. But now everyone knows not to mess with her and people with children they love and value can keep their kids away from her and her gun.

54. Yes , it DOES make one

an asswipe. And many of us prefer not to have anything to do with said asswipes, so publishing addresses of these asswipes allows us to know when they're in our neighborhood and to steer clear of them.

58. Good luck expecting these people to stop their name-calling.

They are pathologically unable to do so, even though they have been told (and anyone with an ounce of common sense would know) that calling one's opponents nasty names doesn't do a damn thing to further rational dialogue.

They're not interested in rational dialogue, though. They just want to throw a fit and call names.

23. The parents can ask

if they are leaving their kids at someone's house it would be reasonable to expect that they know the person well enough to simply ask if they want to know. No, the danger is to the gun owner who has credible threats...and now to the idiots who thought this was a good idea..karma comes a'callin'..

60. How ridiculious

You may need an internship at a local law enforcement center or better yet a prison. Either there is a crime problem which makes perfect sense to make a plan to defend yourself, just as you have a plan to escape a fire or shelter for tornado which you have less of a chance of encountering than you have of being a victim of violent crime. Or there isn't a crime problem, in which case why do you care? Go on believing that 40% of the population are people who would lie to a mother about such a thing. Nonsense it is..

We can assume that the person who owns a Rolex watch, a pistol, a Mercedes Benz, a pit bull, a German Shepherd, a Maltese has a good reason, in that owner's opinion, to own the animals or things. But in the end, the owner doesn't have to have any reason, and the reason is no one's business.

Just as it's no one's business why a woman wants an abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy. If it's legal, it's legal, and ain't nobody's business.

If you don't want someone to own something or do something, you have to ban it. It's that simple.

42. Well yes indeed, lets publish the names of those with no guns

I see no reason not to publish registered gun owners, but I also think we should publish those without guns. Aren't they the ones wanting to take everybodys protection and saying they need no protection themselves??

Turn around is fair play, right? In fact I think non gun owners should be required to have a sign on their front lawn saying so. That way the police can quickly find the crime scene after the anti-gunner calls 911.

47. The guns that won't be on that list are those that criminals bought or got...

or which people bought before being required to go through a background check or register, or that they bought from another individual.

So, it's only the law abiding gun owners who are on the list. Not the wacko who bought five assault weapons at a gun show from a guy named "Fred." And not the teenager Billy, who scraped together $200 to buy a pistol from a guy in the neighborhood called "the skull."

61. That's exactly my point. It's not illegal, but it was stopped because it's unethical and does harm.

I can get your tag #. I can walk up and stand in front of your house on your street and take pictures of it. Nothing you can do about it. It's legal. I can even post those pics on the internet. Legal. But not the right thing to do. Not ethical (unless you give permission).

I find it hard to believe you were a reporter...in one sentence you are saying, basically, that you agree it would be unethical to publish public information (if Google were to "publish" by posting a pic of your tag # on the internet), and then you say it is ethical if YOU do it ("you" being defined as a reporter).

Unethical is unethical. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. It's all legal, no matter who does it. That's not the issue. It's just not right to make a criminal's job easy for him by pointing the way or to push the boundaries of invasion of privacy...even if it's not legally invasion of privacy.

9. But it's really great poo

15. I am all for gun control and education. Here was the real problem

These folks who had their names and addresses published were NOT a news story. A news story is supposed to serve the public interest. What was served is a 'gotcha' to joe and jane q public. The only thing this publication did do was heap on more controversy to a subject that needs to be dealt with in an intelligent manner. Not throw shit onto people's faces...

64. I've been trying to find a link to that map but can't. Does anyone have the link?

I understand Westchester County is home to literally THOUSANDS of retired LEO's. I think I'll compile a list of their names and addresses and sell it to some ex-cons I know in The City. That oughta be worth a couple of bucks at least.

Hey, everybody deserves an opportunity to make a living. Besides, compiling a list from a list that's already out there isn't against the law, is it? If it's not against the law, then it's obviously OK. And hey, it's all public information, right?

Maybe some of the ex-cons in The City know a retired LEO or two on the list because he busted them or put them away for a while. Maybe he just tuned 'em up a little. Who knows? Maybe they'd like to go pay a visit so they can thank that retired LEO for turning their life around. Good idea, huh? Or maybe they'd like to thank the retired LEO's wife/husband or kids when the retired LEO is away from home so as not to embarrass.

Or ya know what else? Maybe I'll find the psychiatrists/psychotherapists on the map and sell that list to people getting discharged from Bellevue.

Damn, I think I can really make some bucks with this.

Anyone got the link? I need to get started...

For the mind-numbingly stupid, here's this:

Surely there's someone so supportive of this map that they'd be happy to pass it along, right?